FOOD OF INSECTS. 391 



which induces the necessity of drink, is plain from those 

 larvae which live entirely on substances so dry that it is 

 almost unaccountable whence the juices of their body are 

 derived. The grub of an Anobium (Ptinus, L.) will feed 

 for months upon a chair that has been baking before the fire 

 for half a century, and from which even the chemist's retort 

 could scarcely extract a drop of moisture ; and will yet 

 have its body as well filled with fluids as that of a leaf-fed 

 caterpillar. 



By far the greater part of insects always feed them- 

 selves. The young however of those which live in socie- 

 ties, as the hive- and humble-bees, wasps, ants, &c. are 

 fed by the older inhabitants of the community, which also 

 frequently feed each other. Many of these last insects are 

 distinguished from the majority of their race, which live 

 from day to day and take no thought for the morrow, by 

 the circumstance of storing up food. Of those which feed 

 themselves, the larger proportion have imposed upon them 

 the task of providing for their own wants ; but the tribe 

 of Spheges, wild bees, and some others, are furnished 

 in the larva state by the parent insect with a supply of 

 food sufficient for their consumption until they have at- 

 tained maturity. 



As to their time of feeding, insects may b? divided into 

 three great classes : the day-feeders, the nignt-feeders, and 

 those which feed indifferently at all times. You have been 

 apt to think, I dare say, that when the sun's warmer beams 

 have waked the insect youth, and 



" Ten thousand forms, ten thousand different tribes, 

 People the blaze." 

 you see before you the whole insect world, You are not 



